Cn/iitral First Principles, 749 



are liable to the cup inid the star-shake. I inclioe to the belief that these 

 defects are less frequent in the i^cdunculata, whatever the situation or 

 soil may be upon which they are grown." 



In the Spanish chestnut both male and female flowers occur on 

 similar catkins. The female occur two or three in a cluster surrounded 

 by an involucre of bracts, from the axils of which grow the spiny 

 abortive branchlets, which afterwards surround the fruit. 



In the beech the male catkin is globular and long-stalked, whilst 

 from one to three female flowers are enclosed by the involucre of four 

 bracts, which afterwards becomes brown and hard, enclosing the " mast " 

 or fruit. 



The long, greenish-yellow staminate catkins of the hazel are well 

 known. The female flowers have red styles, and occur surrounded by 

 bracts, forming small oval bodies, in the axils. The bracts afterwards 

 form the green husk of the nut. The perianth is absent in this tree 

 and the hornbeam. The male catkin of this latter species resembles 

 that of the hazel, but has larger bracts ; the female flowers are also in 

 a pendulous catkin, occurring in pairs in the axils of green bracts 

 which grow into three-lobed leaf-like appendages to the fruit. The 

 stamens of the hornbeam, with a forked filament, are worthy of exa- 

 mination. 



In the w^illows the male trees bear the beautiful globular, golden- 

 anthered catkins, known as " palm ; " the female catkins are longer, of 

 a greyish appearance, with silky bracts and ovaries. The male catkins 

 of the poplars are long and pendulous. 



It only remains to notice the Conifera?, the principal types of which 

 are the yew (Taxus haccata) and gingko or maidenhair tree (Salishuria 

 adiantifolia), the pines, larches, and cedars (Finns, Larix', Abies, Ce- 

 drns), the mammoth tree (Sequoia or WcUin{jtonia), and the cypresses, 

 junipers, and arbor-vitse (Ciipressus, JunijJcrKs, Thvja). These are types 

 of the Gymnospermia, or naked-seeded plants, those which have no 

 closed ovary. They have no true perianth or floral envelopes, and 

 are all diclinous. The yew and the gingko are dioeciously diclinous ; 

 they have large clustered stamens, surrounded generally with scale- 

 like bracts in the axils of the leaves, and sohtary ovules gradually 

 surrounded by a fleshy disk or cup, which in the yew is pink and 

 remains open, having a drop of fluid in its mouth in lieu of stigma, but 

 in the gingko almost closes over the ovule. Round its base is an 

 involucre of green bracts. 



In the true cone-bearers the male catkins are simply masses of 

 anthers on small scales, containing enormous quantities of a very 

 minute pollen. The c(yne is an organ the nature of which is still dis- 

 puted, but it consists essentially of a number of overlapping scales that 

 bear naked ovules on their inner surface, at the base in pinus, at the 



VOL. I. 3 G 



